Daryl

I have five of Steve's planes (and in fact interviewed him years ago for my club's newsletter). The high back infill I have from him (stamped by the way 001) is the best smoothing plane I've ever used. And the jack plane with tote is my heavy lifting plane of choice. His tools were/are simply marvelous.

I think anyone who wants to use a radial arm saw these days needs their heads examined. It takes up a huge amount of shop real estate for what is really a single purpose tool. Yes, you can crosscut with them, but a sliding miter saw does it as well, and way safer. Yes it can dado, but so can a tablesaw, or a router and guide. And for those who learned how to rip on them, you really are crazy. The action of the blade makes THAT cut totally hazardous. So the only thing left for it is a crosscut in boards probably wider than 12 inches, and if you do that regularly, you are a major pro in desperate need of a tablesaw with a sliding table.

I tend to mark things the same way. I've gotten better about using things like triangles. It cuts down on my brain screwing things up.

I think woodworkers should be able to take one from column A and one from column B. Especially when the columns are full of Lie Nielsens and Festools. But then, even if our tools aren't that great, well, we can read in FWW how to MAKE them GREAT!!!!

I've read this book also (shameless plug-- this review will appear in an issue of my club newsletter a www.liwoodworkers.org probably in February). I really enjoyed it, and felt the "choppiness" that Matthew did not like was what I did like. The stories were - ahem - as splintered as the title.

I feel few except woodworkers, as many millions as we are (and the number is in the book), will read this; we already know wood is important, at least to us. So I really loved how Carlsen touched on so many different subjects, but felt he did keep them under one tent. What I most appreciated about it was that Spike Carlsen is a terrific writer. You may not be interested in every facet of what Spike had to say (actually I was, since I am a trivia buff), but he said it really well.